Monday, March 25th | 13:00 - 14:30
Location: The Palestinian Museum, via Zoom
Language: Arabic

Join us in a conversation with artist Hani Zurob about This is Not an Exhibition, a space currently hosting six of his artworks created between the years 2000-2009. We will contend with the current conditions arising from the genocidal war being waged by the Israeli occupation on the Gaza Strip from the perspective of the resulting impact on artistic life, including what the Palestinian art movement has lost to the ongoing siege, blockade, and war. Special focus will be given to what artists have experienced in the death of loved ones and the cold-blooded execution of their artworks, studios, and outputs. We will also touch upon Zurob’s personal experiences, going back to his beginnings and early works; the development that occurred in his style through the use of new, unconventional materials, such as tar; and finally, the reality of what it means for an artist to be a Gazan Palestinian abroad.

About the Artist Hani Zurob
Zurob was born in Rafah Camp in the Gaza Strip in 1976. He holds a BFA from An-Najah National University in Nablus, and today lives and works in Paris, France.

In his artwork, Zurob tackles global concepts of identity, place, and memory with all the complex details that come with the states of suspension, delays, waiting, exile, movement and displacement, absence and resistance. Hani’s oeuvre conjures his memories and stories that shaped his life, and, which relate to the events in Palestine and the region with what they hold as complex political and cultural dimensions; within his topics or concepts, Zurob searches and researches these memories and attempts to understand the effects of deconstructing the relationship between the past and present on himself and others; thus, His art transcends both borders and geography.

Zurob uses different media to the extent of their literal meaning or, at times, his metaphorical understanding of these materials and in as far as it serves the concept, where allows the concept behind a particular work to determine his choice of media.

His work can be found in several private and public collections internationally such as the British Museum, London; the Arab American National Museum, Michigan; Moderna Galerija / Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (MG+MSUM), Ljubljana, Slovenia; Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, NY; Institut du Monde Arabe, Association Renoir, France; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Mairie de Paris; Imago Mundi-Luciano Benetton, Italy; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman.

Zurob has won several international awards and residencies, including Bourse et Prix Renoir 2009, and was named one of ten ‘international artists to watch’ in 2013 by The Huffington Post.

*Hani Zurob, Lesson in Aviation, 2009, (diptych). Tar and mixed materials on canvas, 240 x 100 cm
Courtesy of the Bank of Palestine Collection